There are actually good 650a rims out there; if someone made a couple of mountain bike tires you could retrofit 650b frames very easily. It would probably annoy people who are opposed to such things, as we have seen with 650b, but I think it would be fun to try it anyway.

This would be pretty much right in the middle and I think would
have been a better size.

Why do people get hung up on it not being truly in the middle? That's irrelevant. It's a wheel size that works well. Better in some aspects than 26" and 29". A good compromise between the two. Ride it and you'll see what the buzz is about.

Agreed. Given that both 26" and 29" are essentially accidental/arbitrary, having 27.5 be exactly between them isn't necessary. That said, 27.5/650b is *also* basically arbitrary.

It would be fun to be ultra rich and make a whole bunch of wheels and tires in, say, 1cm increments and then spend a few months double-blind testing them all to see what worked best/was most fun for a variety of people in all sorts of situations.

I don't think I'm going to be getting that rich on framebuilder money, though!

If I went with 650a, the tire diameter would have been too big to fit inside most suspension forks at the time. This would have made conversions impossible, which in turn would have killed the mid-size wheel concept before it ever began. So as it turns out, 650b was the better (best!) size after all.

Cheers,
KP

If you like my products and services tell everyone. If you don't, tell me - kirk(at)pacenticycledesign.com

Why not 650A instead of 650B?

Originally Posted by Kirk Pacenti

If I went with 650a, the tire diameter would have been too big to fit inside most suspension forks at the time. This would have made conversions impossible, which in turn would have killed the mid-size wheel concept before it ever began. So as it turns out, 650b was the better (best!) size after all.

Cheers,
KP

Yessir. Early on it was the MTBR basement wrenches converting 26'ers that jump started the "movement." Note to haters. At that time, IIRC, only Jamis, KMC & Haro, actually sold complete 650b bikes, and not too many of them at that. Wouldn't exactly call that a market driven phenomenon. Thanks to Velocity Blunt rims, Pacenti Neo Moto tires, convertible Fox forks and then dual size X Fusion forks, home wrenches were able to convert. I built the 2nd and 3rd wheels of my life to get on board. Had to buy a new X Fusion fork, however, not having a Fox on my 26'er, but that beat out a new bike. For sure I was the first person on my block to own a 650b, a HT conversion, and a 1X9 at that ( what an innovator; pretty sure I was also the first 1X rider as well).
In 2010, the wheel size was so "market driven", friends, employees and owners of every LBS in my City just laughed at me. One owner said it was a wheel for children & women unable to fit on and men unable to handle 29'ers, and had zero future. And that was a Jamis dealer. So my first purpose built 650b was one of those ridiculously low priced 2010 Jamis B2 closeouts on Ebay. So a dealer lost a sale due to utter, total and complete disinterest in the product. But I wanted a FS trail bike and persisted. I was self driven. The market told me to pound salt.

In 2013 and 2014, Specialized and Canondale, big players in the business, still say pound salt, while Giant, the biggest of all, says, we're all in. Spec and Cannondale are on the wrong side of history, IMO. Meanwhile, Kirk Pacenti can go around handing out cigars.

Old enough to know better. And old enough not to care. Best age to be.